Our science adventure has taken us deep inside of an animal cell.  Last week we used what we had studied to create a large scale model of a cell from clay.  The entire family worked together on this cooperative project that was sure to be a hit, although the 4yo struggled to stay focused and drifted off to wash her hands a few times as illustrated in this first photo where she is seemingly not present.

We started by making the individual parts of the cell and discussed what the job of each was as we made them.  I also required us all to call each part by it's rightful name rather than easy to identify names like "canoe piece" and "teddy bear looking thing."

mitochondrion

cell inclusion being added

The difficult part was building the organelles into the cytoplasm without losing their shape.  We tried to form it delicately around each organelle as we went along.

vacuole with a little white ribosome peeking over the edge

blurry picture of the rough endoplasmic reticulum

Once we had the nucleus and all the organelles in place dd and ds pieced on the cell membrane.

Now the fun really begins.  We clean up the work area, wash our hands because we can't stand the feel of the clay on them anymore even though we know we're just going to touch the clay all over again and begin slicing.  We used fishing wire to do the slicing as was suggested to me by a fellow KONOS user and it worked great.

Daddy makes the first cut.

We all hunt for the nucleus which is supposed to be in the middle but it is not there! From this view (and I know it's small) you can see the pink mitochondrion and the lime green centriole as well as a few white ribosomes but I don't think they are visable in this shot.

Another slice reveals 4yo dd's nucleus has somehow slipped off to the side.  Hmm mom, I wonder how that happened?  More evidence that God has every tiny detail figured out and does it right.

The kids take turns slicing it up in different directions to view various planes.  Even the little one is able to slice the cell with a helping hand.

This is a good view of the Golgi complex (red) that held its shape fairly well.  Above it the blue and yellow vacuole (or is that a lysosome?) and below it a whitish gray ribosome.

They really had fun cutting it up into many pieces and examining it to find the organelles they could recognize.

 I found this website helpful in preparing for this lesson, visit The Cell Project for more examples!

• Comments (0) • Post A Comment! • Permanent Link

Our family started back to school on Monday after a long Christmas break.  We are now in a new KONOS unit.  Hurray! I love starting a new unit.  This one is on the character trait cooperation.  Our first subunit is the study of the human body and how God has designed every detail to work together. 

First we all discussed the difference between systems, organs, tissue and cells.  In order to make sure the kids understood the diference, I made up slips of paper with a different item on each such as digestive, nervous, liver, bone etc.  The kids set out four containers and labeled each one seperately so we had one for system, one for organ, one for tissue and one for cell.  Each child took turns placing the slips of paper in the correctly labeled bin.  As you can imagine some items needed to go in more than one bin.  It was pretty cool hearing them rationalize how "muscle" could mean muscle tissue or a muscle cell.

After learning about the differences between these words we viewed how our many systems are all layered and intertwined inside of our bodies.  The clearview pictures in The Human Body A Fascinating See-Through View of How Our Bodies Work made a great visual for this!  I had also found another fabulous book at the library with very detailed illustrations called The Visual Dictionary of the Human Body an Eyewitness book.  I'm sure you can find many wonderful resources on the human body at your local library too.  

Our next KONOS activity involved the major organs of the body so I chose to have the older two kids cooperate on this activity.  On sticky white contact paper I wrote a list of several major parts of the body and cut them out.  Then I asked DD and DS to accurately place them on DS's body.

• Comments (0) • Post A Comment! • Permanent Link

We had a splendid Christmas and we hope you did too!

Here is our dd just waking up and opening her stocking.  She is opening a new deck of cards, her third in a series of five needed to play Hand and Foot.

Our ds has perfected the art of holding the presents up for pictures!

And last but certainly not least, the child who is thrilled with even the smallest unknown gift.

Happy New Year to all of our readers here in blogland.  We hope yours is a year of plenty spent in the shining light of our Savior.

• Comments (0) • Post A Comment! • Permanent Link

• Comments (1) • Post A Comment! • Permanent Link

My Christmas shopping is done.  I only have a little bit of wrapping left to do.  I think I got everything my kids needed and a lot of what they wanted.  I got the gifts for my parents and sisters and dh's parents.  They are all wrapped and waiting for delivery on Christmas Eve.  I'm excited about that but I can't shake the feeling that I'm not doing it right.  Now, I don't mean that we spent too much and we're going to have to dig ourselves out in the coming months, which we are, I mean something more.  Something beyond my own personal stress.  My real fear is that my children aren't getting the message I so want them to receive.

I tried to add in something more this Christmas by asking my family to consider a gift to those who have nothing.  We got a World Vision catalog in the mail this year.  It's the first time I've ever seen something like this.  So sad considering all the other catalogs we receive throughout the year.  After praying about it and consulting with my husband we all had pages dog eared and items circled.  Then each child got out his or her piggy bank and gave what they felt they could to the combined fund.  I almost cried when my youngest ones wanted to give almost all they had.  Didn't Jesus want us to be more like the little children?  They have such faith! 

We counted up our collection and voted on which items to purchase based on how much we had.  My dd was sad because she really wanted to buy a share in a well but we hadn't raised enough.  Even with purchase we did make and it is more than we've ever done before, I also feel a little let down.  Why do I spend so much on my own children who get what they really need all year long, and so little on the children who have nothing?

I have friends who give small gifts to their families and the kids are all happy.  How do they do this?  What do you do when you've given to your kids so generously each year and then suddenly one year you don't give them but one or two gifts?  How do you make the transition?  I'd love to hear your input on this if you have made this kind of change in your own household.

I came across this video tonight that confirms my feelings on this issue and I think I've made my New Year's resolution already.  It's sort of a three part resolution.  Pay off Christmas debt, raise funds to buy a share in a well for an impoverished community and give less "stuff" next Christmas.  I would appreciate any advice and prayers you might be willing to offer, as I am truly inept in this area.

• Comments (2) • Post A Comment! • Permanent Link

Surrounded by towns which are covered in ice, our home did not lose power, nor did we have ice on any of our trees.  It was amazing really.  I drove out of my neighborhood and into the next to see an entirely different scene.  Trees down, littering yards and roadways just one road away from me.  Yesterday when this all came to my knowledge, I thought I was just south enough to miss the storm but several towns to my south have been affected by the weather too and have lost power.  It is so strange to see some areas affected while others were completely missed.

Driving to a friend's house today, we were surrounded by huge trees completely broken or bent over.  We saw icy trees still lying across power lines and had to carefully drive under them.  Her property is still covered by the beautiful but frustrating ice. 

Here are some of the pics posted on FOX news.

Please keep New England in your prayers.  I have friends still without power, thankful for generators, camping supplies and fireplaces.  Kris (Musing Mom) calls it pioneer living in the 21st century, and I think it's getting old real fast for her and many others who need electricity to pump water into their pipes and heat into their homes!

On a positive note, on our way home today we had to wait for a convoy of utility trucks to pass before we could make a left turn.  There had to be at least a dozen of them and they were all from out of state, Maryland I think.  I admit I got a little choked up and thankful.  I'm not even in need but to see that many trucks pass you, knowing their purpose and knowing they've driven a long way, that gives you a good feeling in your heart.

• Comments (3) • Post A Comment! • Permanent Link

Today our homeschool group got together to do a day of crafting.  13 Families each brought a craft to make with all the children present so your children could potentially come home having made 13 different crafts!  All this was done in a matter of 2 hours.  Phew, it's like a whirlwind Christmas crafting extravaganza.  And amazingly it did not seem *that* hectic.

When all was said and done my children had made several of their Christmas gifts for their grandparents and aunts as well as a few we could put on our tree at home, some gift bags and they each made a card for our soldiers.

My friend Paula from God's Country Club  brought thin disks of black birch and used Christmas cards.  The children cut out their favorite pics from the Christmas cards and Mod Podged them onto the wooden disks.  Simple but my all time favorite for the year. 

• Comments (0) • Post A Comment! • Permanent Link

Hey that's pretty neat huh?  I was tagged by Tonya over at Everything I've Got.  You must go check out her very cool site and Etsy shop where she sells her fabulous handmade creations.  I love going over there to look when I am feeling domestic.

 Now on to the random facts ( I have to admit it took me a while to post this tag because I couldn't think of anything interesting to list here. )

1. I strongly dislike jackets and coats.  I find them much too bulky and cumbersome so I hardly ever wear one.  I have been known to go out in many a snow storm without one and although I do keep one in the car now because of pressure from my mother and dh, I would say my coat usage in any given winter has been less than 5%.  With the exection of the winter of 2001/2002 when I was pregnant.

2. It bothers me when people call markers, magic.

3.  Ice cream makes me happy.  Even in a snow storm without my coat.  I love it, would eat almost any flavor and I have and will again travel an hour out of my way to purchase what I consider VERY GOOD ice cream.

4.  I once kicked my friend for taking my four leaf clover.  It was mine, not hers even if she found it on my lawn.                    OK, I was wrong.  I guess I should have let her keep it.                           I was VERY young at the time.

5.  I also kicked that same person for removing my hood when I asked her not too.        It was a bad haircut.                                            I looked like a boy.                             I think that happened the same year as the clover incident.  Most likely happened the same week.  I think I need to find this girl and do some apologizing.

6. My daughter read From The Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler about 3 years ago I think and I still have the title of that book coming up in my brain at least once a week.  I think of it all the time.  I have no idea why.  But it's there and it never goes away.

7.  OK, all the rest of these "facts" have truely been random albeit not very interesting so I saved the best for last.  Since I received this tag, I have spent countless hours perusing the chain of blogs and LOVE all the craftiness I see on them!!!  Bloggerland is such a neat place.

So here's my seven to add.  I visit these blogs regularly for inspiration, laughs, ideas and just to see what my bloggerfriends are up to.  I hope you enjoy them as much as I do.

 Kris the Musing Mom  God's Country Club  Train Up a Child...

 Mary, who is Raising Four Godly Men 

 Prairie Lady  Ohio Sarah  Just Call Me Jamin

I look forward to seeing all of your "lists" of seven random factoids!  Thank you Ladies for all you put into your blogs.

• Comments (0) • Post A Comment! • Permanent Link